


Glass and the ghost children

by SharpestRose



Category: Batman (Comics)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-30
Updated: 2011-06-30
Packaged: 2017-10-20 21:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We're still heroes."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glass and the ghost children

**Author's Note:**

> Title yoinked from a Smashing Pumpkins song. Timeline-wise, set after Batgirl #62 and before Batman #638.

"Oh, come on, that trick was stale before they tried it last time," Jason complains, leaning on the back of Bruce's chair as the monitors play footage of some guy in a red helmet. There's a newspaper on the floor beside the chair, bearing the headline 'The Red Hood Strikes Again'. Jason steps on it, twisting his heel. The paper rustles faintly before settling still again.

"Bring up file J419," Bruce tells the computer.

"Re-runs again? You have every channel on the planet here, and you watch the same old crap over and over." Jason pokes the back of Bruce's head with one finger. Bruce doesn't notice.

The old tape of Jason training on the high ropes starts playing alongside the red helmet guy on the screens.

"Hmph. Well, they're getting better, I guess," Jason concedes grudgingly, flicking at the tip of Bruce's ear until Bruce reaches up to scratch it. "This one doesn't look so much like Nightwing's understudy. I'm still way better, of course."

"I can't wait 'til they start trying that shit with me," Steph remarks, leaning against the glass costume case. "Cassie'll take one look at Evil Spoiler's moves and burst out laughing, you wait and see."

"You're back early."

"Unlike some people, I don't hang around leering in the windows of sorority houses when I go out for field work."

"That was _one_ time. And they were conjuring up a _demon_."

Steph smirks. "If that's the story you're sticking to, fine."

Jason grins and walks over to her, leaving Bruce to his footage of Stupid Helmet Guy. "How's Batgirl?"

Steph shrugs, her face blank behind her Robin mask. "Okay, considering. Pretty beat up, but she'll get home okay."

"Good." Jason looks up at the costume case, the colours and shadows of Bruce's back and the fighting on the screens reflecting over the thick glass.

"Associate file 'Red Hood' with folder 'Robin', subsection 'Jason Todd', cross-referenced with 'Hush'," Bruce tells the computer. Steph sighs.

"Oh, come on," Jason says again. "Go to bed before you get any stupider, boss."

"Shouldn't Nightwing be doing distraction duty, seeing that he's around for a change?" Steph steps inside the case and starts prodding at the mask. The near-invisible display supports keep it from even wobbling. "I never liked the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Not the end, anyway. The wolf _eats_ her, y'know? You can't come back from that, even for revenge."

"I never minded. If you can't get revenge in stories, where else're you gonna get it? I just wish this Red Hood wasn't using my moves to mess with Batman's head."

"When villains find a theme they like, they stick to it, I guess." Steph gives up on moving the mask and starts hunting for stray threads on the uniform proper. "Now, the one I _really_ hated was Snow White. Because Little Red Riding Hood was really dead and she came back, which is stupid, but Snow White was only mostly dead and they stuck her in a glass coffin and put her on display. Now _that_ sucks."

"Nah." Jason stands in front of the case, watching as Steph pulls and pinches at the fabric of his old uniform. "It's not so bad. Better than being forgotten."

Steph snorts, sticking one booted foot through the glass to tap against the new brass plaque at the bottom. "I never really planned on being remembered as 'A Good Soldier'."

"I always wondered if he had other draft phrases, Like 'A Somewhat Loveable Fuckup', or 'Mostly Remembered To Put The Mustard Back In The Fridge'."

"'Made An Effort'," Steph suggests. "'Momentary Distraction From Important Brooding'."

"He should've consulted us," Jason says with a grin. "Give it up, Robin, Alfred's too meticulous for there to be any little rips or anything."

"Hah, that's what you think." Steph grabs onto the corner of the bright gold cape with both hands and pulls sharply. It stirs, like there's a breeze inside the case. Bruce glances away from the computer screens.

"Score one for the Girl Wonder!" Steph crows.

"Okay, Bruce, GO TO BED!" Jason shouts in Bruce's face. "It's dawn out there. Remember sunshine?"

Bruce covers a yawn with his hand, blinking tiredly, and stands.

"That's a good dark knight. C'mon, the stairs are juuuust over here," Jason coaxes. "Think of all the fucked-up nightmares waiting for you."

Bruce looks at the case as he walks by, breathing out a soft sigh. Steph pokes her tongue out at him.

"If I'd known that I'd end up an undead vigilante babysitter for a bunch of people who insist on putting themselves in mortal peril all the time, I'd have skipped career day at school and gone to the mall," she remarks when he's gone.

"My guidance officer told me to look for a job in middle management." Jason sits down in Bruce's chair, pushing against the edge of the console with his feet until he can make it swivel slightly. "You see Tim while you were in the Haven?"

Steph shakes her head, stepping down at out of the case. "He can feel us more than the others. He gets depressed when I stay too close."

"You ever read the file on what happened when he and the Titans ended up in the future?"

"Mm-hmm. I think you were watching Oracle, during the week where Bruce read it over and over. I got so bored I went to Kansas for three hours."

"Smallville?"

"Yeah."

"There's a kid named after me somewhere there. I've never looked for him."

"Mm." Steph sits back, resting her back against the computer's wide dead screen. "Has he done anything else with the file on my kid?"

Jason gives her a slightly stern look. "You made me swear on my mother's grave - _both_ my mothers' graves - that I wouldn't tell you if he did. Not until the kid's eleven, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Why eleven, anyway?"

Steph sighs, drawing one knee up to rest her chin. "I dunno. When I was eleven, I felt like I'd grown up enough to not really need my parents anymore. I guess I figure that the kid'll be themselves enough that me showing up in their dreams won't hurt them. Stupid, huh?"

Jason shakes his head. "No. The time'll fly, don't worry."

"Yeah, well, these deathwish Bats keep us busy enough, that's for damn sure. Why'd you ask about the Titans thing?"

Jason shrugs. "This Red Hood thing got me thinking, that's all. The guy Tim grew up to be was... well, he forgot _the rule_."

"There's another memorial we could get: 'Eventually Got The Point'."

"Yeah, exactly. And I keep thinking about what our Tim, the real Tim, said to that other one."

"'You may have learned some new tricks, but we have one thing you don't. _We're_ still _heroes_ '," Steph recites. Jason raises an eyebrow. "Hey, like I said, Batman read it over and over and over."

"I keep thinking about it. That's it, isn't it? It doesn't matter if Superboy thinks you're really Robin or not, or if some guy keeps trying to convince Batman that I think Tim's a pretender, or that we died, because we're still heroes. Nothing that happens can take that away, so long as we keep on trying."

"You've been watching Alfred's soap operas up in the kitchen again, haven't you?" Steph asks, her mouth a slightly wobbly grin. " _You_ shoulda had a skirt on your uniform."

"Aw, fuck you," Jason mock-sneers, kicking out at her leg. "I'm trying to have a moment here."

"Good luck with that."

"Wanna do a sweep around the city?"

"Just try and keep up!" Steph grins, bounding down from the console and vanishing into the shadows.

Jason glances back at the newspaper resting by the chair, and scowls for a moment.

"As _if_ ," he mutters.

"C'mon, Robin, get the lead out!" Steph calls.

Jason turns, and runs after her.


End file.
